(Pic 5 – The South-eastern part of my empire. Note the horses near the border and the wheat resource just to the west of York – all joined by roads meaning they service any city connected in this way.)
A001 - Civilization 4 Walkthrough home
Civilization 4 Walkthrough
Part 2 - 75AD to 1200AD
75AD – Hastings is built on the S coast. Warrior2 finally reaches the far end of the continent. It’s only taken him 3900 years! The Incas are unfriendly, so he turns round and comes back. Meanwhile London produces a second Great Prophet, Mahavira.
This time I send him to York, the Holy City of Christianity, and he constructs the Church of the Nativity. This is the Christian shrine and draws in 1 gold for every Christian city (currently 5 but hopefully more soon). York starts work on the Parthenon, more in hope than expectation, because that wonder increases the production of Great People.
150AD – I discover Iron
Working, which means swordsmen units
and workers can chop down jungle, which they set to with gusto. Full steam ahead for
Construction! Uh-oh,
what’s this – a barbarian archer
threatens the fledgling city of Hastings; fortunately I have two
Warriors
stationed there and the grunts see the enemy off.
Although it’s tempting to rush build cities as
soon as Settlers
are built, it is an absolute necessity to ensure you have a suitably
robust
escort to ensure your young and vulnerable city survives infancy
(Pic 5 – The South-eastern part of my empire.
Note the horses near the border and the
wheat resource just to the west of York – all joined by roads
meaning they
service any city connected in this way.)
400AD – A rice field and a
gem mine means that my cities are
healthier and happier than before – as is Mansa who wants a
trade of
techs. I agree
because with alphabet I
can aim for music and the first Civ to research music receives a nice
little
bonus...let’s see if it’s me.
In the
west my lone Warrior2 is walking through a lot of unclaimed land that
the
Chinese can develop. They
could become
a superpower later I the game. Luckily
the barbarian city of Vandal has appeared over there so they will have
to
subdue that first.
475AD – After London pups a settler I found Canterbury to the W. Caesar is to the north so I need to look further westward to the coast to expand.
Hmmm…a coastal settlement would be useful but it might be stretching things too far. The more cities that are built and the greater the distance from your capital then the more they cost. I’m still running in credit at 90% research – which is good – but I don’t want to blow it.
Both Caesar and Mansa want to trade
my
elephants for clams. Well
tough,
because I want to keep them for my own nefarious purposes and it might
be against
one of them…
520AD – Caesar demands my world map and then threatens me when I refuse.
Ooh,
I’m scared (well
actually I am vulnerable at the moment.
Until I link up the iron or build some War Elephants then I have no
taste for combat).
In this part of the game the Roman civilisation (as in
'proper'
history are in the ascedancy because their Unique Unit, the Pratorians,
are very powerful indeed. these units need iron to be built
and
there is an undeveloped iron mine just inside his empire but as I
haven't seen sight nor sound of a Preatrian near my borders I'll gamble
that Caesar isn't so dangerous at the moment and is just trying to get
one over on me.
Mao offers to swap
maps, which I accept, and it shows me a huge amount of land to the NW,
mostly
jungle, that’s just begging to be settled. Not by me though.
620AD – A tech trade with fellow Christian Genghis means I
can build plantations. As
I have sugar
and dye resources waiting to be improved this is good news; as is the
appearance of another Great Prophet (more money) and, as I discover
Music,
Homer not that one) appears in London.
He’s my first great artist and I have big plans for him. The special powers that this particular brand of Great person has is that they can create a Great Work and give the city they are in a massive culture boost thus pushing out my boundaries and tempting any cities from other civilizations with weak culture to come and join the party. I decide to send him to Canterbury and claim the unsettled territory there.
On
a similar theme the city that Mansu built just N of London,
Kumbi Saleh, is in open revolt against Mansu’s rule because
of the cultural
gravity that London is
generating.
If
London continues to do this then Kumbi
will ‘flip’ and the city will be mine.
There’s more than one way of conquering other
Civilizations. I put the pressure on by constructing a
theatre in London and wait…
680AD – Homer produces his great work and the borders of
Canterbury shoot out, although not as far as I’d hoped.
My empire now extends to the S borders of Caesar’s Civ and neatly nicks his Iron mine at the same time which will scpper any conquest ideas he has for the moment. Enough of the culture – I have to build an army.
(Pic 6 – My much-travelled warrior, flying the cross of St
George is not offered much choice as to his next move.
The number next to the cities’ names is an
indication of its respective size.)
820AD – Currency then Construction are discovered. I trade with Mao and Caesar and then my brother-in-faith Genghis asks me for horses. I agree and immediately regret it...
The first is good because I can now trade items for cash and build markets to give me more money; the second is good because I can build my War Elephants and Catapults that my medieval army will consist of. The second is not so good because I remember that the Mongol Unique Unit is the Keshlik, a beefed up horse-archer. No wonder Genghis is happy with me…I’ll have to watch my back.
1010AD – Mansu ever so politely asks me to trade Elephants. I ever so politely tell him to sod off (although we do gruffly exchange a couple of techs). The axe-wielding Chinese build a city right on the edge of my Civ, thus pushing my boundaries back a little which is provocative to say the least and, because I discover Philosophy and do so first, the religion of Taoism is founded in Canterbury. In other news Saladin and the Arabs embark upon a Golden Age – a period of unparalleled growth and prosperity but I still can’t see his Civ and he won’t trade maps. The git.
1160AD – The Parthenon is built in York, which is a bit of an extravagance seeing as how my army is so underdeveloped but it will mean that Great People are cranked out faster. My first War Elephants and Catapults roll of the production lines and I build a galley in Nottingham and send him off exploring (he can’t stray too far from the coast though). A settler is built and makes his way to the W coast before Mao gets there and I discover Education, which propels my Civilization into the Renaissance Era.
Taking stock
Things are going well for me. I gambled on an era of peace whilst I built cities and wonders and, thankfully, that's what we had. As Genghis and I share a religion I was much less wary of him than I would have been had he followed another religionbut he is unpredictable and could change at any time . Caesar might have been a threat but it looks like his lack of available terrain to expand into is restricting his development. My economy is settled but I am dangerously exposed to attack. Mansu seems to weak and Ghengis is unlikely to invade a fellow Christian nation. I think my biggest threat is the Chinese to the W. I am gong to keep building my Catapults and War Elephants and see how things go but I’m not going to be overnice to anyone. With a continent this crowded war is bound to break out before too long and I need to be able to take the offence on at least two fronts. Other than that I want to develop secure ocean-going vessels and look around for whatever else is out there so I need to research astronomy and build a navy and a city on the NW seaboard would be useful for that.
The scores:
(Note that the symbols indicate the state religion in addition to showing if the respective civs have trade and open border agreements with me. In this world Confucianism is the majority religion.)